1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to non-volatile memory devices, and more particularly, to nitride-based trapping-storage flash memories.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrically programmable and erasable non-volatile memory technologies based on charge storage structures known as Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM) and flash memory are used in a variety of modem applications. A flash memory is designed with an array of memory cells that can be independently programmed and read. Sense amplifiers in a flash memory are used to determine the data value or values stored in a non-volatile memory. In a typical sensing scheme, an electrical current through the memory cell being sensed is compared to a reference current by a current sense amplifier.
A number of memory cell structures are used for EEPROM and flash memory. As the dimensions of integrated circuits shrink, greater interest is arising for memory cell structures based on charge trapping dielectric layers, because of the scalability and simplicity of the manufacturing processes. Memory cell structures based on charge trapping dielectric layers include structures known by the industry names Nitride Read-Only Memory, Poly-Silicon-Oxide-Nitride-Oxide-Silicon (SONOS), and PHINES, for example. These memory cell structures store data by trapping charge in a charge trapping dielectric layer, such as silicon nitride. As negative charge is trapped, the threshold voltage of the memory cell increases. The threshold voltage of the memory cell is reduced by removing negative charge from the charge trapping layer.
Nitride Read-Only Memory devices use a relatively thick bottom oxide, e.g. greater than 3 nanometers, and typically about 5 to 9 nanometers, to prevent charge loss. Instead of direct tunneling, band-to-band tunneling induced hot hole injection BTBTHH can be used to erase the cell. However, the hot hole injection causes oxide damage, leading to charge loss in the high threshold cell and charge gain in the low threshold cell. Moreover, the erase time must be increased gradually during program and erase cycling due to the hard-to-erase accumulation of charge in the charge trapping structure. This accumulation of charge occurs because the hole injection point and electron injection point do not coincide with each other, and some electrons remain after the erase pulse. In addition, during the sector erase of an Nitride Read-Only Memory flash memory device, the erase speed for each cell is different because of process variations (such as channel length variation). This difference in erase speed results in a large Vt distribution of the erase state, where some of the cells become hard to erase and some of them are over-erased. Thus the target threshold Vt window is closed after many program and erase cycles and poor endurance is observed. This phenomenon will become more serious when the technology keeps scaling down.
A typical flash memory cell structure positions a tunnel oxide layer between a conducting polysilicon tunnel oxide layer and a crystalline silicon semiconductor substrate. The substrate refers to a source region and a drain region separated by an underlying channel region. A flash memory read can be executed by a drain sensing or a source sensing. For source side sensing, one or more source lines are coupled to source regions of memory cells for reading current from a particular memory cell in a memory array.
A traditional floating gate device stores 1 bit of charge in a conductive floating gate. The advent of Nitride Read-Only Memory cells in which each cell provides 2 bits of flash cells that store charge in an Oxide-Nitride-Oxide (ONO) dielectric. In a typical structure of a Nitride Read-Only Memory memory cell, a nitride layer is used as a trapping material positioned between a top oxide layer and a bottom oxide layer. The ONO layer structure effectively replaces the gate dielectric in floating gate devices. The charge in the ONO dielectric with a nitride layer may be either trapped on the left side or the right side of a NROM cell.
Floating gate devices encounter substantial scaling challenges due to inter-floating gate coupling, while nitride trapping device is flexible from such limitations. There are two main types of nitride trapping device: NROM that stores charges locally and SONOS that uses channel program/erase. These two types of devices have drawbacks. A Nitride Read-Only Memory device is sensitive to hot-hole induced damages, and a SONOS device suffers from retention problems caused by direct tunneling leakage through the thin tunnel oxide.
A conventional AND-type floating gate flash memory is suitable for many commercial applications because the memory device possesses the characteristics of high-density, low-power and fast speed programming. However, due to the inter-floating gate coupling effect, the scaling of AND-type floating gate devices is limited. When the space parameter for the floating gate device is shrunk, a high floating gate coupling effect may cause undesirable and severe disturbance. The conventional AND-type floating gate device also suffers from tunnel oxide scaling issues and erratic bits where a local defect or trapped charge, in a tunnel oxide can result in the leakage of the charge in the floating gate.
To address the scaling issue in floating gate devices, charge trapping devices such as SONOS, MNOS or nano-crystal trapping devices are suggested. However, these devices all suffer serious charge retention problems. For a SONOS device, the ultra-thin tunnel oxide is unable to properly preserve a charge storage. For a MNOS device, the structure does not provide a top oxide to block the charge loss. A nano-crystal device cannot be well-controlled because of the randomly distributed nano particles.
Accordingly, it is desirable to design AND-type floating gate flash memories that provide scalability while overcoming the retention problems as well as maintaining efficient hole tunneling erase.